How is Climate Change a Scale Problem?A variety of economic activities over the past 150 years has resulted in unsustainable concentrations of various greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, resulting in a serious threat to the planet's climate stability. Achieving sustainable scale will require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels we know to be safe (see Climate Change and Scale).

Will the Proposed Solution (the Kyoto Protocol) Achieve Sustainable Scale?The Kyoto Protocol has not established a target for greenhouse gas emission reductions that will result in sustainable scale for climate stability. The Protocol is an important international agreement and contains many useful recommendations that are badly needed. However, even if successfully implemented it will not achieve sustainable scale (see Proposed Climate Solutions).

What Additional Scale Relevant Policies are Required?Getting the target right for greenhouse gas emissions is key in making the best use of the many policy and technical solutions currently available to reduce excess emissions. A variety of vested interests have prevented political decision makers from making the best use of sound scientific advice regarding greenhouse gas emission targets. Economic interests trumped science in setting emission reduction targets (see Additional Climate Solutions).

What Scale Relevant Lessons Should We Take from the Climate Change Story?Human interference with global life support systems is a high risk activity. Now that we are aware our economic activities can alter robust global life-support systems, the human community needs to both deal with the problems already created, and develop policies and practices which prevent more scale problems from occurring (see Climate ChangeLessons).